If you’re looking for tactical gear, it’s hard not to come across the BlackHawk brand. BlackHawk has made quite the name for itself over the years in providing our police, tactical operators and warfighters the gear they need to do their jobs. Whether it’s holsters, packs or clothing, they’ve got you covered and combat cutlery is no exception to that rule. BlackHawk has been doing tactical knives for a quite a while now and the Gideon is just the latest knife to be offered for your consideration in their BlackHawk Blades line.

The Gideon actually consists of two versions, a tanto-point and a drop-point. Both knives feature 3/8-inch thick, 5-inch long blades of black Ti-Nitride coated AUS8A stainless steel. The Gideon is a full tang design and overall length on both is 10.25 inches. Blade markings are discrete with a small and simple Gideon, a BlackHawk Blades logo, and the country of origin stamp. The handles are of CNC-machined and textured black G-10 and are comfortably sized at around 4 inches in length, plus another inch or so of extended, beveled striking pommel. Overall fit and finish is excellent with clean grinds, a good factory edge and very good handle scale to tang fit.

Both models of Gideon feature a 5-inch blade differing mainly in blade shape and the addition of a finger choil on the drop-point model. Blade markings are subtle.

Nylon Sheath

The Gideon comes with an injection-molded nylon sheath that has a couple of interesting features. First off, in a nod towards the way tactical blades are most often carried these days, the Gideon sheath features a flat back with a series of rivets spaced for mounting MOLLE compatible plates. The sheath comes with a set of screws and spacers, and two different sizes of mounting plates. If you need to carry it on the belt, you can mount the longer plates and run a belt through those. The other interesting item is the integral lock that ensures the blade stays put when you’re carrying it. When you sheath the knife you’ll hear a click as a button snaps into place just behind the forward guard of the knife. When you draw the knife, you have to depress the button while drawing the blade. In some ways it reminds me of the BlackHawk SEPRA holster system—it’s fast and intuitive.

BlackHawk’s new Gideon fixed blades are designed with today’s warfighters in mind. They use modern design features to ensure high usability by operators in the field.